When Opposites Attract
by writing-to-music
Summary: Dan doesn't do a lot but sit around on his laptop until one night, at a party hosted by Dan's brother, a guy dressed in oddly creative clothing stumbles into Dan's room and suggests they go out on an overnight adventure. Two-shot. (Now complete!)
1. Chapter 1

1\. 

The time on his laptop display read 10:38pm. Tumblr was open on the screen, as it usually was this time of night. Moonlight was creating a thin stream of light through the mostly-closed curtains, the sun having finally decided to set that summer night.

Dan was not wearing headphones, as his brother and his friends were already making enough of a racket out there in the main area of the house. No one could hear him over the slightly muffled music coming through under the door.

His brother's parties were few, unlike many of his friends' parties, but when Dan's brother decided to host, it was always loud and long-lasting. Dan could usually block it out using Tumblr, YouTube and – well, just really the Internet in general.

The Internet was always there, and while it could be seen as sad that it replaced real friends, Dan was perfectly content. He never really saw the appeal of parties, or going out, or getting drunk for shits and giggles. Even dating held little to no appeal – and he was attracted to both girls and guys. He wasn't really a social person, and that's all there was to it.

Since he spent so much of his time in his room, it was pretty well known among his brother's party-goers that you didn't go into Dan's room – you picked just about anywhere else to have your drunken hookups. Dan felt pretty secure in that rule.

So, it was quite a big shock when his door burst open and a guy stumbled in. Dan drew back involuntarily; suddenly glad he was still wearing a t-shirt and jeans. That would have been even more awkward than this already was.

The first thought that hit Dan's mind when he looked at the intruder was the sudden burst of colour. He was wearing dark purple jeans and a galaxy-printed shirt dusted with silver glitter, and were his nails painted? On anyone Dan could think of, it would have looked weird, but the oddly creative clothing suited this guy.

"Hi, I'm Phil!" the stranger chirped, clearly not realizing that this room was not open for the party.

The next things Dan had noticed were that the person – Phil - was holding a red cup, and the way he had stumbled through the door. 

_Oh shit, he's drunk_ , Dan thought to himself, inwardly groaning at the idea. He had to be, there was really no other way to explain the irritatingly happy behaviour of this person. Plus, he was 110 percent sure that was beer Phil was holding, and _you had better not spill that on my floor_.

"What are you doing in here?" Dan asked, annoyed.

Phil didn't answer, instead he just looked around the room, at the dark clothing strewn everywhere, the band posters on the wall, and the laptop still open on the unmade bed. Dan had the uncomfortable feeling that Phil was taking in just as much of his lifestyle from his room that Dan was taking from Phil's clothes. He had to admire the irony in the situation – they were pretty much polar opposites.

"Would you mind leaving?" Dan said with ice in his tone. "I don't have any alcohol in here."

Phil's eyes widened, as if an incredible idea had just come to him. A grin spread across his face, and if it was any other time, any other place, Dan might have smiled too. It was just so unexpectedly infectious. Phil lowered his voice and looked Dan straight in the eye.

"Can I tell you a secret?"

Dan didn't know what possessed him to nod.

Phil leaned in closer, right to Dan's ear. Before Dan could protest at the unaccustomed closeness, Phil whispered, "This is just apple juice," and stood back up, swirling his cup around in his right hand.

Dan blinked. "So you're not drunk, then," he said warily.

"Nope!" Phil replied, taking a sip of what was apparently apple juice.

"Well, you're sure acting drunk," Dan replied.

Phil looked mildly taken aback by this pronouncement. "Why would you say that?"

"You almost fell through my door!"

This earned a laugh. "I'm the clumsiest person alive!" defended Phil.

When Dan didn't respond to that, a silence fell on them, but it wasn't quite awkward. The ice seemed to have been broken by their unusual introduction. To an outsider, it might have appeared that Dan was thinking over Phil's last sentence, but actually he was just confused. Dan was curious about this person, though he hated to admit it. He had never met someone like this guy before.

Phil broke the not-quite-awkward silence with a much unexpected question. "Do you want to go out?"

Dan spluttered, choking on air. He couldn't believe that. This guy, thinking he could just waltz in here, or, trip in here, and then ask him out –

"Not like that!" Phil backtracked, contrasting Dan's horrified expression with a slightly embarrassed one. "No, just, like, get out of here."

Dan raised an eyebrow, not getting the full meaning of his words.

"Downtown isn't far from here," Phil clarified. "And, I know a cute little cinema that's playing the Avengers tonight."

"And you would know that how?" Dan asked cynically.

"Because I work there!" Phil grinned. "Can't you just see me handing out popcorn?"

Dan had a sudden mental image of Phil in a uniform. It didn't really fit what little he knew about Phil's personality. "You probably eat the popcorn," he said, in a sudden burst of laughter.

"I do," Phil agreed, laughing along. "So, how about it?"

"You're sure this isn't you asking me out on a date?" Dan asked. "Cause I am bi, and –"

"No," Phil said, cringing. "This is about the movie."

Dan laughed again, and without really considering it, he nodded.

"Great!" said Phil. "Let's go out the window. The people out there are nuts."

"Plus, I want to lock my door," Dan added. "You never know what someone might – do – in my room while I'm gone."

After appropriate locking measures had been taken, the two climbed out the window. The clock read 11:24, and they had almost the whole night ahead of them.

"So, my car's over there," Phil said, as they walked away from the house. There was no need to sneak, as everyone in there was too occupied slash drunk to care. It was a fairly new-style car, but one thing stood out from it – Phil had absolutely covered the bumper in stickers.

Also, it was pretty beaten up, like maybe it had been in a few accidents. Dan noticed that right away, and compared that fact and the slight shaking of Phil's hands.

"I'll drive," Dan volunteered, and he could see Phil visibly relax, even in the dim light they were getting from a street lamp.

"Okay," Phil agreed, sighing. He slid into the passenger seat, and Dan marveled at how fast Phil trusted him, a total stranger, to drive his car.

The next few minutes blurred as Phil gave instructions and Dan followed them. They got lost a few times, due to Dan's nervous driving and Phil's utter lack of a sense of direction, but eventually they made it.

The cinema was tiny, nothing like the big movie theaters one often finds in city areas. The lighting was old-fashioned, and so were the front displays and ticket counters, but the inside was all modern. It even had one of those new Coca-Cola machines that dispensed a hundred types of soda, although Phil sadly informed Dan that only fourteen of them worked.

They had to hurry, because due to this being spur of the moment, they had missed the trailers. Phil bought the popcorn, waving Dan off when he tried to pay for it and greeting the girl behind the cash by name – "hi, Natalie, you got the night shift? Stay strong."

As for the movie, it was amazing as always. Both boys had seen it before, and as there was nobody else in the theatre (who even goes to midnight showings?) they could talk, and fangirl, as much as they wished.

When they walked out of the theatre, Dan was, quite surprisingly, feeling no regret towards his decision. Phil was actually cool. They had a lot in common, including that they were both huge nerds and both loved anime.

"To be honest, who ever walked out from The Avengers without shipping two of them?" Dan said, smirking.

"Ugh, but Thor and Loki? That's so weird!" Phil said, shuddering.

"Don't insult someone's OTP, ever," Dan warned, and then continued, "Personally, I ship Scarlett Johansson with herself," which made Phil laugh.

All too soon, they were back at Dan's house. The time had flown by without either person knowing where it had gone. A silence fell, and this time, Dan broke it, albeit somewhat awkwardly.

"That was really fun," he said, not quite meeting Phil's eyes due to his blushing. "We should stay in touch."

"Yeah, let's!" Phil said. He pulled a pen out from his pocket, and rifled around in the glove compartment for a piece of paper, but came up with nothing. He looked at Dan. "Pass your hand."

Dan held it out, and Phil neatly wrote a phone number across it. "Call me," he smiled, and got out of the car.

Dan followed suit, and too soon, he was waving to the other boy as Phil drove down the street. He felt happy, and hopeful, and not nearly as lonely as he had before. It was late, late enough to go to sleep without needing to browse for another few hours.

Unlocking his door made it open, and a couple of people fell into his room from where they had obviously been lying against it. Dan sighed and moved them out, shutting the door again. At least nobody had made it inside his room while he was out. Drunk people were devilishly clever with their lock-picking.

Phil was on his mind as he fell asleep, thinking about all the possibilities, and suddenly the future seemed a little less dark than it had before that night.


	2. Chapter 2

2.

 **A/N: I realize IHOP is American, but now there's one here, because, plot reasons.**

Phil's alarm woke him up at 7am, annoying him as usual, although he'd set it to play "Toxic" by Britney Spears, in order to make it less irritating.

"Baby can't you see," he mumbled, grabbing his phone clumsily and turning it off.

Partially awake and tangled in a mess of bedsheets, Phil stared at the ceiling, which had very subtle silver stars painted on it. They glittered in the early-morning sunshine, the only clue that they were even there at all.

The ceiling only seemed to be blurry out of one eye, which either meant Phil had forgotten to take out his contacts and just lost one, or he'd only taken one out the night before. Or, it had rolled back into his skull during the night. Well, if you could call it a "night" – he'd collapsed into bed at 3:30, so really only three hours ago.

Groaning, Phil heaved himself out of bed, popped his one remaining contact out, exchanged them for glasses and showered, although he wanted nothing more than to sleep the day away. He had to go to work, because his sadist manager had scheduled him for the morning-movie shift on a Saturday.

Seeing that Martyn had left coffee for him, Phil was so grateful he could have hugged him. It was lukewarm, not hot, but the caffeine rush was welcome, and after three cups and a lot of toast, Phil could think more clearly.

Despite the crazy lack of sleep, last night had been fun. He'd gone to a party, because the Howell guy – he totally forgot his first name – had good parties, and then he'd invited the guy's brother out to see a movie. Dan? Dan, yeah, that was him.

It was cool. Phil smiled, thinking about Dan. He'd written his number on Dan's hand, but hadn't gotten Dan's back, so now he had to play the waiting game. Dan would probably wait three days before getting back to him – or was that only for dates?

Phil stopped mid-sip. Did Dan think that was a date? Last night was a little fuzzy from tiredness, especially towards the end, but he had said it wasn't a date.

The all-too-familiar worry started in his stomach. Dan had been really nice, and even if it wasn't a date, he'd have to tell Dan eventually if they were going to be friends. He didn't want to have to let Dan down, the way he'd let down all the others.

By the time Phil got to the movie theater to start work, he'd checked his phone nineteen and a half times (taking it halfway out of his pocket, but not looking at it, totally counted as half). Still, nothing from Dan – he must be a late sleeper.

He'd made up the uniform story. They only had to wear a vest with a name tag and a cap as their cinema uniform, but despite the weird manager's best efforts, were allowed to wear whatever else they wanted to. Today, for Phil, that was black skinny jeans and a ladybug-spotted sweater that, while it did match the red vest and cap, did make him look a bit like a ladybug. He didn't mind, really, as long as it was colourful it worked.

Except for the black ring on his middle finger – well, that stayed black.

The morning crowd of moviegoers were never Phil's age. They were older people, going to see the "blast from the past" films they always showed in the mornings, and young mums with babies buying cheap tickets to cartoons. It wasn't the worst shift at all, but Phil preferred the afternoons, when he didn't have to wake up to get there early. More than once, he found himself yawning as he sold popcorn and tickets.

What made it even worse was that he was usually alone in the mornings. This was a small theater, after all, and since they only showed three movies at a time, somebody thought it was a great budgeting idea to have some poor sleep-deprived guy work alone in the mornings.

Phil didn't mind too much. Between movies and customer rushes, he would sweep, organize the ticket counter, and – more often than that, sneak handfuls of popcorn. The machine was right there! You couldn't expect him to _not_ have a little! He'd earned it, and nobody cared anyway.

By the time his shift was done at noon, Phil was about ready to unsteadily drive himself over to the nearest IHOP and spend his paycheque on the biggest stack of pancakes known to man, but he checked his phone in the back first. To his surprise and delight, there was a message, another one coming in as he read.

 _(unknown number): hey this is dan last night was fun_

 _(unknown number): shit i meant the movie the movie was fun :P_

 _Phil: yes it was great! did you sleep well?_

Phil cringed as he sent it. Smooth, Lester. He sounded like his mum.

 _Dan: yeah i literally just got up hbu_

 _Phil: worked all morning, am ready for pancakes_

Don't think too much, Phil reminded himself as he typed the next message. Live in the moment.

 _Phil: want to join?_

 _Dan: yes!1!_

 _Phil: ihop in 20 see you there :D_

Phil sighed as he shoved his phone into his jeans pocket. He wasn't really one for sudden changes in plan, but this opportunity was too good to pass up. There was no need to be nervous. It was simply pancakes with a new possible friend after a morning shift.

20 minutes later, he walked into the familiar IHOP, the amazing smell of pancakes making him relax and feel better almost instantly. This was something of a tradition for Phil, getting pancakes after working all morning. It was something to look forward to after a boring shift, something to make getting up in the morning for work a little bit easier.

He spotted Dan in a booth by the back, and slid in across from him, grinning as he took in Dan's disheveled appearance, nursing a cup of coffee.

"How are you so awake?" Dan moaned.

"My blood is 99% caffeine and Haribo," Phil grinned. "Ooh, coffee!"

As if on cue, the waitress had swung by with another mug, and had filled it with coffee at Phil's urging, topping up Dan's mug while she was there.

Dan stared. "Are you kidding me?"

Phil laughed at Dan's incredulity, sticking his tongue slightly out from between his teeth.

Dan didn't speak much over the next few minutes, taking time to wake up. Phil ordered for the both of them, assuming (correctly, thankfully) that Dan liked pancakes.

It was quiet, but the silence was comfortable. Phil hummed slightly to himself, and Dan slowly woke up, after several cups of coffee and some extensive eye-rubbing at one point.

"I'm sorry," he said unexpectedly after a while. "I'm not a very interesting brunch date."

 _Date._ Oh no. "Ah, it's okay," Phil said, and paused. He couldn't just let that go. "Is this a date? Did we talk about that last night?"

"Yeah, we did," Dan said. "I thought you'd said you didn't have anything to drink."

"I didn't, I was just really tired, I don't remember a ton of details," Phil explained, feeling nervous. "Memory of a goldfish, and all that, ahaha."

He wrapped his hands around his mug to warm them. It was cold in the restaurant, rather contradictory to the warm and welcoming environment. Maybe a broken heater.

Dan's eyes flicked down to the black ring on Phil's hand. "I like your ring," he said casually.

"Thanks," said Phil. "It, um – has a lot of significance to me." Phil willed Dan to connect the dots, hoping to get this over with as soon as he could. He couldn't have a repeat of last time. Dan was so nice, and it wasn't awkward so far, please please please don't screw this up-

It was like a light bulb went on in Dan's head, and he – he smiled.

"You're ace," he said, still smiling. "Oh my God, is that what you're so nervous about?"

Phil nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

"That's okay, you spork!" Dan said, almost fondly. "Why didn't you just tell me?"

"Scared you'd think I was – I don't know, leading you on or something," Phil mumbled, the relief infinite.

"You really don't remember a ton, do you?" Dan said, and yeah, that was definitely fondness in his voice. "I never thought this was, y'know, a proper date."

"But you just said –"

"Figure of speech!" Dan cut in. He laughed slightly. "I thought I was driving you away with my awkwardness, all this time!"

"Not a chance," said Phil, and this time he managed a smile as well. "You're stuck with me now."

"The pleasure's all mine," Dan said, as the pancakes arrived, and the air finally, finally began to feel warm.


End file.
